U.S. troops conduct Christmas drop over remote isles

In this Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 photo released by U.S. Air Force, Staff Sgt. Kyle Favorite, 374th Airlift Wing loadmaster, from Yokota Air Base in Japan, pushes a pallet out of a C-130 Hercules over the island of Fais in Micronesia during Operation Christmas Drop 2011.

TOKYO >> Christmas has come early to some remote islands in the western Pacific.

Care packages full of medicine, food, toys and school supplies have been raining down on dozens of tiny Micronesian islands over the past week, with "Operation Christmas Drop," the oldest ongoing U.S. Department of Defense mission in the world, in full swing.

The humanitarian airlift mission, in its 60th year, is conducted by Air Force personnel out of Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, and includes several aircraft deployed from Yokota Air Base in Japan and a detachment from Hawaii.

On Thursday, 25 boxes of IV fluids were airlifted to the Micronesian island of Fais, which is suffering an outbreak of dengue fever, according to a statement issued by the mission's command.